Australian Police Investigated for Prank Picture of Handcuffed Lily Allen

Singer Lily Allen arrives for the BRIT Awards, celebrating British pop music, at the O2 Arena in London February 19, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

The Australian Federal Police were placed in hot waters for breach of protocol after an Instagram post showed the British singer/songwriter Lily Allen on handcuff.

According to a report from TMZ, a group of police officers were accompanying the 29-year old singer through the Gold Coast Airport in Queensland on Sunday afternoon prior to her performance at the Splendour of the Grass that night on Byron Bay, New South Wales. One police officer broke the protocol when he obliged to the star who jokingly requested her to handcuff her for a snapshot.

The singer then posted a picture of the prank arrest on her Instagram account with almost 4.8 million followers. The photo showed Lily Allen in a kneeling position with her head bowed low, her hands were handcuffed behind her back. One of the cops was in a bent position behind the star while holding her handcuffed hands.

The photo of her fake arrest was captioned with the hashtag #uhoh and immediately got over 7,700 likes and hundreds of retweets on the social media.

But the AFP was unhappy with the prank picture that they launched an "internal process" to investigate the matter. An AFP spokesperson confirmed the snapshot to The Guardian.

"It appears the members involved were caught up in the moment and standard protocols were breached," the AFP spokesperson said.

Menwhile, Gold Coast City Councilor Dawn Crichlow told the Fairfax radio that thestunt with Lily Allen's fake arrest was not good. She stated that she does not appreciate a picture of the cops playing around with their handcuffs.

"It's bad that the federal police allowed this to happen and they should be hauled over the coals," she stated. Councilor Crischlow added that it would have been fun if the police office gave the star his cap and have the snapshot taken like that.